to Advance

the Capacity

of Grassroots

Women

Worldwide

to Strengthen

& Create

Sustainable

Communities

The Huairou Commission begins and ends with women who live and work in houses, high rises and lean-to's, in rowhouses and compounds; under bridges and branches; in favelas, jampungs, ghettoes, gecekondos; in markets and malls; alongside alleys, streets, superhighways, roads, tracks and trails.
It begins and ends with women who, everyday, must meet their responsibilities to their homes and communities within a rapidly changing and highly disruptive global context. As globalization undercuts local economies, disorders patterns of transportation, water, fuel and food, makes knowledge bases obsolete, usurps political processes, and provokes change in traditional relationships, grassroots women must invent strategies that will make their homes and communities work. This includes influencing local, national and regional decision making.

THE CREATION OF THE HUAIROU COMMISSION
Grassroots women issued their first major international statement on community development at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing China in 1995. Meeting at the conference's NGO margins in the town of Huairou (why-row), they laid out a platform which incorporated their uniquely intimate, hard-headed and practical knowledge of communities. Its points were immediately recognized as being vital to the creation of sound global development policies and the Huairou Commission was established. It moved grassroots women to the center of international policy making.

AN ALLEGIANCE TO GRASSROOTS PARTNERSHIP
The Huairou Commission institutionalizes its allegiance to its grassroots source. The core of its Coordinating Committee is made up of representatives from international women's network organizations. This group, deeply rooted in local communities, negotiates partnerships with other NGO's - like WEDO and the Women & Cities Network, the United Nations, local governments, parliamentarians, scholars and researchers. At this time, the Coordinating Committee core is made up of grassroots representatives from the following organizations.

Asia Women & Shelter (AWAS): This network of women working with poor women aims at generating awareness of gender issues in settlements development processes as well as offering support and mutual learning among its members.

GrassRoots Organizations Operating Together in Sisterhood (GROOTS): With organizations in 40 countries, GROOTS has been strengthening members's strategic capacity to create better lives for themselves, their families and communities for 10 years.

Habitat Intenational Coalition - Women & Shelter (HIC-WAS): With 40 member organizations, HIC-WAS has been working on women and human settlements issues for10 years.

International Council of Women (ICW): With Councils in 72 countries, ICW has been promoting and enhancing the welfare of women, the family and humankind for 100 years.

A GLOBAL VOICE
Since 1995, The Huairou Commission has worked closely with its international colleagues to introduce a grassroots women's dimension to policy-making. They carried their new and vital perspective to the Habitat II Conference (1996), the 16th Session of the Commission on Human Settlements (1997), the UNDP Conference on Governance for Sustainable Growth and Equity (1997), and the 1997 and 1998 meetings on the Commission on the Status of Women. Huairou Commission members advise UNCHS Best Practices and the UNCHS Forum on Urban Poverty.

LOCAL ACTION
While international policy and practice profoundly affect community change, the primary worksite for most grassroots women is local. To support their work, the Huairou Commission has launched a new three year plan: A New Way of Partnering: Engendering Democracy At the Local Level. Currently supported by UNIFEM and UNCHS Women & Habitat Programme, the plan is designed to give grassroots women some of the tools they need (like a breakdown and simplification of the Habitat Agenda for local use) to become more effective partners in local planning and decision making. A New Way will help make it possible for women to publicize, share, critique, improve and act on their development concepts, plans and strategies.

A GROWING COALITION
Members of the Huairou Commission understand that homes and communities are not made in an instant nor singlehandedly. They are remade moment by moment, by each and everyone of us who has a part in them. Thus, the Huairou Commission seeks new members and new partners. Please get in touch with the Huairou Commission Secretariat.

GRASSROOTS WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL ACADEMY

OUR BEST PRACTICES GUIDELINES AND SUBMISSION FORM

We welcome your participation.


C/O UNCHS HABITAT
2 United Nations Plaza,DC2-0943
New York, NY 10017 USA

Tel: 1-212-832-6446 Fax: 1-212-832-9059
Email: huairou@aol.com
Chair of the Secretariat: Jan Peterson